Low-Cost Mobile Device for Screening of Atherosclerosis and Coronary Arterial Disease

In the context of global health, telemedicine, and low-resource settings, we present a non-invasive smart-phone based device that can be used to screen for atherosclerosis,which is the leading factor for ischemic heart attacks and strokes. Using acustom Android mobile application, our device computes Pulse Wave Velocity(PWV) using the pulse signals from photo-plethysmographic (PPG) probes, which are simultaneously clipped onto the ear, index finger, and big toe of a human subject. Unlike other designs which require the use of an ECG reference, our mobile device uses only PPG signals and is entirely powered by the mobile phone via the USB port. Using the ear signal as a reference, we derived PWV values from two locations: the right index finger, and the right big toe.We present data from a recent clinical study with 78 participants (age 26 to 74) who were divided into three groups: Coronary Arterial Disease ("CAD"), hypertensive group ("PreCAD"), and Healthy controls. The CAD group was clinically diagnosed and confirmed with a CT-scan and calcium scoring. PWV values derived from the finger was found to have too much variance to be clinically useful. However, PWV values derived from the toe location showed significant differences between the groups, even after accounting for age. Measured PWV values were: 10.07 (8.51-12.01) for the older CAD group, 9.39 (7.44-9.75) for the younger CAD group, 8.26 (7.26-9.22) for the older Pre-CAD group, 10.57 m/s (8.5-11.2) for the younger Pre-CAD group, 7.13 m/s (5.97-7.69) for older healthy controls, and 6.71 m/s (4.86-7.26) for the younger healthy control subjects. These results demonstrate good potential value of this mobile PWV device as a simple low-cost screening tool for atherosclerosis and coronary arterial disease.